The Schwerdtfeger Library will hold a book sale 14-15 February. Books, reports, conference proceedings will be available for your review just outside the Library. Reports are yours for the taking and most books, yours for $1.00. Books left over will be sent to the Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries who will hold their spring sale in March.
 
 

New Electronic Resources in Campus Libraries

Knovel Scientific and Engineering Online References (updated daily)
The Knovel database contains some of the leading engineering reference handbooks, databases, and conference proceedings. Some subject areas covered are: chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, concrete, asphalt, mechanical engineering, semiconductors, electronics, and surface engineering. Some of the standard reference texts included are Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, Lange's Handbook of Chemistry, Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, Machinery's Handbook, and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Knovel is a provider of aggregated engineering and applied science data that utilizes proprietary tabular analysis tools. The content of more than 200 books is interactive and cross-searchable. Users can manipulate and extract information (for example, text, live tables, graphs, images, databases) to suit their needs. Data searching retrieves tables, graphs, and equations that can be further manipulated in spreadsheets and with java applets. Many titles have hyperlinked indexes. Access: Licensed access for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff

Declassified Documents Reference System: The United States 1945 - 1970's (not updated)
The DDRS: US includes documents made available through the Freedom of Information Act from the period immediately after World War II through the 1970's. Nearly every major foreign and domestic event of these years is covered: the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movements, and others. Documents are available as keyed searchable texts and as digital facsimiles. Access: Licensed access for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff

IEEE Xplore 1988 - to date (updated daily)
IEEE Xplore contains the comprehensive electronic collection of IEEE journals, transactions, magazines, conference proceedings and active standards. The database covers approximately 100 journals and more than 350 conferences. All documents are available with related abstract/citation records and PDF full-text. For the journals, transactions and magazine content, HTML full-text will be made available starting from 1996 publication year and going forward. The HTML content will be loaded in phases during 2000 with the most recent content (from 1998 and 1999) loaded in the first stage. As more HTML content is loaded, users will be able to conduct searches across this full-text along with the text of the abstract/citation records. (IEEE Xplore utilizes cookies, small files that stay on your computer. Cookies are used to control simultaneous users and to enforce a time-out mechanism. The cookies self-destruct upon
logging-off or timing out of a session.) Access: Licensed access for UW-Madison students, faculty, staff.
 
 

On-line Access to AGU Journals

Many of you have asked why the campus does not have access to electronic versions of journals published by the American Geophysical Union. The reason is cost. It would cost this campus about $16,000 (about 2.3 times the price of the institutional print subscription) to provide electronic access to AGU journals. This is $16,000 that campus libraries do not have in their budgets at present and given the current budget outlook which is flat to decreasing, those funds will not be available any time soon.

AGU states that "institutional [library] prices must be much higher than member prices" to make up for anticipated losses. AGU anticipates a decrease in personal subscriptions as well as institutional subscriptions resulting in increased costs for library subscriptions. You can read more about the policy in "an open letter to librarians," by Marcia McNutt, AGU President.

While libraries are very aware of the significant costs associated with creating, providing and maintaining access to electronic resources, most budgets do not allow for such significant increases. Especially at a time when journal subscriptions are being cut.

What does this mean for you? We will continue to provide print access to AGU journals and keep you notified of any changes in policy. And AGU members always have the option of purchasing access individually.
 
 

2003 Federal Budget

On Monday, 4 February, President Bush proposed a federal budget of nearly $2.13-trillion for the 2003 fiscal year. Detailed budgets for NASA, NOAA, NSF, DOE are found in the section, "detailed budgets by agency." 

In addition, you may find the following of interest:

NSF Summary of Fiscal Year 2003 Budget Request to Congress
NOAA FY 2003 Budget Request
National Aeronautics and Space Administration FY 2003, Congressional Budget Home Page
Details of Fiscal 2003 Department of Defense (DOD) Budget Request
 
 

New E-Books and Reports

Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises. National Academy Press, 2001.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10136.html?onpi_listserv121401

Review of EarthScope Integrated Science. National Academy Press, 2001.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10271.html?onpi_listserv122801

Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium: Panel Reports. National Academy Press, 2001. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9840.html?onpi_listserv122801

Investigating the Influence of Standards: A Framework for Research in
Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education. National Academy Press, 2001.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10023.html?onpi_listserv122801

Transforming Remote Sensing Data into Information and Applications. National Academy Press, http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10257.html

Academic Research and Development Expenditures: [Early Release Tables] Fiscal Year 2000. National Science Foundation, 2001. http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/srs02402/start.htm